PROFESSIONAL | MEDICAL
JOHN PORTER Sioux Falls, SD
Leading Integrated Health Care Systems John Thomas Porter was born and raised in Pierre, SD, where his parents operated a small office supply and equipment business. Having grown up in the state’s capital city and the seat of state government, he developed an interest in political science and law. The middle of three sons in the family, he also loved outdoor activities like hunting and fishing along the beautiful Missouri River valley.
member of the Board of Editors of the South Dakota Law Review. After graduation and a short military obligation, John began working for the law firm Doyle, Bierle and Hagerty in Yankton. Don Bierle served as legal counsel for the Benedictine and Presentation Sisters, and he brought John alongside him as a staff attorney for the Sisters. John later progressed to associate general counsel for the Sisters.
Raised with a strong work ethic, John worked in road construction during the summers between his high school terms, and then pursued an undergraduate degree at the University of South Dakota, majoring in political science with minors in multiple subjects – history, math and sociology – simply because he found interest in all those areas. He graduated Cum Laude in 1971.
In the latter 1970s, John helped set up the corporate structure for the Presentation Health System. He was among a group who collaborated to make management decisions for the facilities – sometimes meeting for three days straight. They formed what became the Presentation Health System – the first Catholic health system in the area. Later, as legal counsel for the Benedictines, he was involved in setting up the Benedictine Health System corporate structure.
In 1968, he married his high school sweetheart, Penny Lathem from Hayes, SD. When John received a scholarship to go on to law school at USD, Penny helped him through by working as a nurse in Vermillion. In the summer of 1973 – a year before earning his law degree in 1974 – John interned at a firm in Yankton, where he was first introduced to legal work for the Presentation Sisters of Aberdeen, SD, and Benedictine Sisters of Yankton, SD, whose health ministry would later comprise virtually his entire career. At the USD School of Law, John was an honor graduate, and
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2018 HONORS CEREMONY
In 1984, John was named Executive Vice President for the Presentation Health System. When a Sister who held the top leadership role stepped down in 1989, John was named President of the system that included McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls, St. Luke’s Hospital in Aberdeen, St. Joseph Hospital in Mitchell, and Holy Rosary Hospital in Miles City, MT, as well as three nursing homes. In the 1990s, the two orders began in earnest to discuss the idea of joint sponsorship rather than join the large Catholic health systems that were forming nationwide. John facilitated
